Biggest Achievement today was buying fabric and making curtains for our bedroom. The apartment came with blinds, but they just weren’t enough to keep us from waking up shortly after sunrise. Add to that a night spent with me waking up, crampy and nauseated, and you get two grouchy people. So we found the local Joann’s (YAY!) and got a nice burgundy home fabric and a virtually-plastic lining fabric. It’s like no light can get through the lining, ideal!

So I spent this evening watching TV and listening to music while I cut and sewed the curtains. We just hung them and they fit very well! (Though it’s a little shaky, I had to make hooks out of paperclips. Need to buy some real hooks, maybe tomorrow) I even safety-pinned them shut to keep out the light. Tomorrow I’m taking them down to do hemming. We have a long car-drive ahead of us, which should provide plenty of time. Then I’m going to add snaps to hold them together as well.

Should file the receipt tomorrow. I’m just tired tonight, since it took hours for those curtains. Plus, I can’t figure out if it should be under Joann or under Housing. Technically, it’s not one of my sewing projects, it was something we needed for the house and I figured that I could do it well, get a good color match (the bedroom is autumn themed…if it has a theme yet…once I finish our quilt!), and guarantee light-reduction by picking the lining….probably Housing.

Achievement #2: I did some research on Roth IRAs. Bigger part of the research achievement was sorting Renters insurance policies available in our area. So far, I’ve found two major companies which offer policies under $200 per year. Plus, they’ll be discounted if we get car insurance from them too! That would be Geico at $194 and (apparently) AllState at $147. The second seems a bit low, though I tried to enter all the same coverages on each one.

Mr. Micah and I will be talking to agents from each company, hopefully during this coming week. Then we’ll figure out which is the best deal. But narrowing it to two helped a lot!

Achievement #3: I suppose this counts financially, I found some shoes for $30. Nice heels with better straps than my older ones. This is important because when I’m on escalators I freak out if my shoes don’t have backs. I nearly passed out on my way to the last job interview. That would have really really sucked, since I was on an escalator (probably the longest one I’ve ever been on). Scariest part of the interview.

I have another interview tomorrow. Fortunately, it’s at a different metro station, but I want to be prepared.

The interview is at 1:30, so wish me luck! The first was a placement agency which got me this one. It’s with a property management company (specifically office space) and in their office. The location is ideal–not close to us, but close to our best friends down here. One of them actually goes to grad school in the same building!! But I’d be in the penthouse. 😉 Awesome office space!

One final shout-out to Queercents blog contributor John. His post reminded me of David Burns’s Anti-Procrastination worksheet. I used it today to get myself to do the research. I did Burns’s Feeling Good as part of therapy in college, worked wonders for me. But I add an element to the sheet, a reward for each task completed (at least the ones I really don’t want to do). So a guilt-free chapter of a favorite book, a television episode, whatever gets me motivated. And that helped today. So thanks, John!

Wow, you got a lot done! I wish I could sew but every time I’ve tried, it’s gone pretty badly. I just don’t seem to have a natural affinity for it. I’d say you should file the expense for the curtains wherever there’s more room – so, if you were close to your housing budget for the month but had spent less than the budgeted amount for Joann, just file the expense under Joann. 😉

Thanks! The curtains are great. 🙂 And I do have a natural affinity for sewing. I’m the only one in my immediate family. But my grandmothers were both good at it too.

I confess that we don’t have a budget this month. We’re figuring out how we live and then we’re going to see what we need to change or if we should just set the budget with what we’ve got (I’m keeping it organized in a spreadsheet). 🙂 But I think it should go under Housing, for that reason. Because it’s not like a normal project for Joann.

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